REFUGEES TO VISIT EAST TIMOR FOR CHRISTMAS

About 450 refugees will arrive in East Timor on Friday, 22 December, for a Christmas visit organized by UNTAET and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The refugees, from camps in the vicinity of Kupang, West Timor, will be picked up in Kupang by a ship tomorrow.

The refugees will be brought to Dili and subsequently transported to their respective home districts on Saturday, 23 December, with the assistance of UNHCR. UNCHR Field Officers will also be monitoring the well-being of the visitors during their stay. Refugees who wish to return after the visits will be brought back on the ship in mid-January. In a separate operation, 14 refugees will be traveling by helicopter from the border to Baucau for a one-day “come and see” visit on 21 December. It is hoped that the visits will promote additional refugee returns.

On 22 December, SRSG Sergio Vieira de Mello and representatives from UNHCR and IOM is meeting a delegation from the Indonesia-based refugee organization, Task Force for the Settlement of the East Timorese Refugee Issue in East Nusa Tenggara, to discuss various concerns in relation to the refugees in West Timor.

CABINET ENDORSES PROPOSAL ON DEFENCE FORCE

In its last session of the year 2000, the East Timor Transitional Cabinet today endorsed a proposal to give legal status to the East Timor Defence Force, through the drafting of a regulation, and to formalize the establishment of the Office of Defence Force Development within the East Timor Transitional Administration. It was agreed that the draft regulation will be closely considered by the Cabinet’s Legislation Committee, currently chaired by the Cabinet member for Justice, Gita Honwana-Welch.

The regulation would underline key elements, such as how the defence force would function and to whom the Chief of the Defence Force would be accountable. The Cabinet also considered a proposal to legally establish the Office of the Inspector General.

A presentation was made to the Cabinet by the Inspector General, Mariano Lopes da Cruz, in which he proposed a number of functions that could be carried out by his office. These functions will serve to increase transparency in the administration. It was agreed that the proposals would be further considered when the Cabinet resumes its meetings in January.